Outerspace

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We are as the flute, and the music in us is from thee;
we are as the mountain and the echo in us is from thee.

We are as pieces of chess engaged in victory and defeat:
our victory and defeat is from thee, O thou whose qualities are comely!

Who are we, O Thou soul of our souls,
that we should remain in being beside thee?

We and our existences are really non-existence;
thou art the absolute Being which manifests the perishable.

We all are lions, but lions on a banner:
because of the wind they are rushing onward from moment to moment.

Their onward rush is visible, and the wind is unseen:
may that which is unseen not fail from us!

Our wind whereby we are moved and our being are of thy gift;
our whole existence is from thy bringing into being.

~ Rumi, Masnavi Book I- 599-607

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Tuesday, 20 May 2008

Lorca You Deserved to Die





Lorca You Deserved to Die


From the streets of Granada
to the drainpipes of my house,

there is only
the noise of bulls and bullets,

only the radioactive voices
of priests and whores
in my skull,

and forgotten heroes smoking pot
in the rain.

Lorca, you deserved to die,
like any other animal
in any other country.

The tree
outside my window
bears no songs, no scriptures, no more…

and the night
is corrupted
by dangerous afterthoughts,

will God appear upon my wall?
have cigarettes become costlier?
will you,
yes you,
stop being a joker,
and write a good poem for once?

and Lorca, you deserved to die
like any other magus
in any other fable.

Poems rot by the dozen here,
and almost every dog
barks at the universe,

almost every day
my memory starts failing me
and I can not recall my age or my birthday-

Lorca,
did I meet you once
in a landscape of crutches
that your friend painted?
Or am I only time-traveling, with a pistol in my hand?

Am I only recalling a dream
of moons, grapes and sinful woodcutters,
a dream that fell
from your sleeve
when they took you away?

From the streets of Spain
to the cinemas of my city,

I only breathe hell
I only search for the bones of dead horses

I only curse you for cursing me
with this
burden of dreaming.

And Lorca,
I must tell you this,

you deserved to die,
like any other pianist
in any other concert of crystals.

8 comments:

tanushree said...

Very poignant and a bit different... The burden of dream makes you travel through the streets of pain where the forgotten heroes smoke pot in the rain...

Life's Elsewhere said...

"Am I only recalling a dream
...
a dream that fell
from your sleeve
when they took you away?"

Brilliant!

lal said...

send ur writing to MIRRAKEL.
ur poem's a joke and makes no sense.Thus a nonsense!!!!!!!

Inam said...

@lal: Yes I did. But they told me it just failed to match the standards set by you and was thus rejected. How pathetic isn't it, sigh. Teach me some of your tricks sometime, ok?

fisherwoman said...

Inam, you should really not retaliate at such great poets... such as, wats his name...

btw, brilliant interplay of tangible and surreal in "Lorca You deserved to Die". And very provocative- 'you, yes you..' with every dog barks at the universe. creates the sound of million voices

--Tina

shahwar k said...

"will God appear upon my wall?
have cigarettes become costlier?
will you,
yes you,
stop being a joker,
and write a good poem for once?

will you,
yes you,
stop calling Chetan Bhagat
the voice of the generation?

and Lorca, you deserved to die
like any other magus
in any other fable.

Poems rot by the dozen here,
and almost every dog
barks at the universe,"

lines of epic grandeur!

due respect...

this one surely deserves it!

Anupam Verma the obscene poet of night said...

greetings, inam. this is a fellow admirer of Lorca and his naive weakness for all things too beautiful for the world to wish for. actually, i had always wanted to write an ode to him and it was nice to come across an attempt at the same. i quite liked the metaphors and the references to the surrealists. try going through my blog too. a few posts here and there although my monstrous insecurities keep me from posting regularly. tagging you.
and by the way, have you read Hernandez's elegy for lorca.

Mystic Orient said...

i have been a silent follower of your works.. and and have mostly relishes the unique flavors of your poetry. It is rather strange that this particular piece has aroused me from my dormancy. Very different from your other works, i have enjoyed the sharp edges of this piece.. almost leave you bleeding in the lap of an angel..
Looking forward to your next work